Tim Peake, a UK astronaut, completed many scientific experiments onboard the International Space Station in 2020.  What an amazing job, going to space and completing science up there too!

Studying videos of his investigations, one of which involved the impact of mass on colliding objects, we recreated our own versions using our ‘hovercrafts’ made from a balloon, a CD, Blue Tac and a bottle top.

Like Tim Peake, we discovered that if a large mass object hit a stationary small mass object, the energy transferred and sent the smaller object off quickly.  When the small mass object collided with stationary larger mass object, the smaller object rebounded off and the larger object and it only moved the larger object a little way.

As scientists, we came up with lots more questions that we would like to investigate after today’s session such as,

What is the largest amount of weight we can add to the hovercraft and it still move?

How does the velocity or speed of the colliding hovercraft impact on the speed that the object rebounds off.

What amazing scientists we have here at Southill.